Which five words best describe Finding your Seat at the Table?
Insightful
Progressive
Timeless
Motivating
Engaging
Can you share one highlight from the book?
Money, the security of income, and time off are important for the millennial workforce. Owing to this, a lack of income security is a concern for the global workforce. However, this security does not necessarily include lifetime employment with one employer with limited growth prospects. The security of income is influenced by secured learning and career progression that will create opportunities for growth and differentiation. This can happen with one employer through challenging growth journeys that take shape in different roles of responsibility. Alternatively, the same can be achieved by changing jobs in pursuit of more challenges and increasing levels of responsibility. Therefore, job security is redefined as a secured learning and progression journey with the same employer or a different one if need be. How do you create this security for yourself? The best way is to invest in yourself; this book is designed to show you how.
Almost a third of the global millennial will work more than one paid job to improve their income security. This increases the average hours dedicated to work. For example, in India, the average working hours are 52 hours per week (8). Even with the increase in working hours, 4 out of 10 millennial plan to take time off for leisure, travel, and vacation. In some cases, the time off is for raising families. This usually has a negative impact on career growth and re-entry into the job market. All things considered, plan your career and life in such a way that the trade-off for family and work still meets your aspiration goals.
What is the purpose of this book?
The world of work is constantly changing creating new careers while some are becoming redundant. In most careers, career development is no longer business as usual. How safe is your career? This book shares global trends on the future of work, the tools to create a career development path, and, most importantly, how to execute it. Nowadays, a lasting career requires adaptation and mental toughness. With the intention to support you stand out from the crowd, this book will help you:
• Define a career that is aligned with your personal mission and values, gives meaning, and creates happiness.
• Design a career path that is adaptable and in demand.
• Manage teams of diverse cultures and backgrounds and improve their performance.
• Negotiate your way to a seat at the table.
• Lead and influence when you get the opportunity to sit at the table
Finding your seat at the table needs you to take charge of your career development and do the things that play to your strengths. Whether you are looking to improve your performance and get ahead, lead your team or department, or plan to run a company one day – this book is for you.
Are there themes that you find turn up again and again in your work? A common thread?
A defined vision and mission are important in everything that we do. When people join teams, they are keen to know the purpose of the team (vision) and what is expected of them (mission). Without clearly defining this for yourself in your career is probably the biggest source of discontent when your career is not where you want it to be. The second source of unhappiness is when you cannot fit into the vision of the mission of your workplace. The common thread is that it takes self-leadership to define a vision and mission for yourself and professional courage to find workplaces that are aligned to the kind of impact you have on the world or influence where you are for the better.
Which character or part of the book was the most fun to write? Which part was the hardest?
The book is filled with many characters that I’ve encountered in my working career, some I’ve led while others were my leaders. The hardest characters to write about are those in a position of power who think they know everything and are not aware of what they don’t know. It’s difficult to create scenarios that would hopefully give such characters their, aha! moment to learn when they are operating from their blind spot, which is a position of weakness. The fun part of the book to write was about leadership once you get a seat at the table. That is because I’m a devoted student of leadership, and I’m always excited about sharing how to put leadership principles into practice!
Can you tell us something that even your most loyal fans may not know about you?
I love to skydive and I’m addicted to anything with crushed ice!
Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
This is the best time to reinvent your career while the world is experiencing so much change and the new norm has become constant change. The ones who can take advantage of the opportunities required to fix humanities current and future problems will set themselves up for success and a lifelong learning journey. The choice is yours.
Finding your Seat at the Table Amazon Paperback link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0620890088
Finding your Seat at the Table Amazon eBook link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08G4LDLQT
Author Bio:
Teboho Mofokeng is a professional engineer in a male-dominated industry. Within four years of her working career, she was married, raising two children, and was promoted to a junior management role. Surprisingly, it only took another twelve months before she was promoted to a middle management role. She has been invited to leading universities in Africa such as the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch to share her unique experience of building her career in the engineering field.
Queenie's BookTalk and Reviews 